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| | This weekend it has been my privilege to
attend and in fact be the anchor at two book launches. I do enjoy book
events. I was even supposed to be going to one this evening but it has
been postponed because the author is ill.
On Friday I travelled all the way to Essex for the launch of If Crows Could Talk: “George Tucker and April Jefferson have never met but they share a secret.
"Born the same day fifty years apart, in the same town in Florida, both are battling demons.
George is African-American – now living in Atlanta, having run from Jim
Crow – only it seems you can't outrun the past. April is a white
teenager terrified she will end up like her mother.
George’s story is set over fifty years, April’s over a single year…
yet their destinies are tied up together. They must meet… but how is the
troubled teenager April the key to unlocking the secrets of George’s
past?
Find out in the gripping If Crows Could Talk by award-winning literary writer Debz Hobbs-Wyatt.”
The launch was a very pleasant affair with
refreshments provided by friends. I interviewed Debz and she read some
passages from the book. There were lots of interesting questions.
This wasn’t just the launch of the book but also of the new imprint
Walela. What are Walela books? They are those books that don’t fit
easily into other categories and also ones that have a literary voice.
Then yesterday it was the turn of Afterwards:
“Girl is dead.
She knows she is dead because she remembers dying. The afterlife is not
what she had expected – she has awoken into a nightmare, in which
everything seems hell-bent on killing her all over again. She is the
only one who remembers what life was like before death and she has no
idea why.
Also, Girl has a secret. A secret which could end this strange world she
has found herself in, if she manages to survive for long enough. As she
begins to learn the horrifying truth about Afterwards, she is propelled
into a journey which will change everything she thinks she knows about
herself.
Grim in places, Karen Kendrick’s Afterwards is also fast-paced and emotionally challenging.
The only way to beat the game is to keep moving forwards, even if it means the end of the world.”
Again, I interviewed the author. This is a young adult book. One of the
characteristics of the YA books is that they cross genres.
Obviously in these interviews we want to avoid spoilers. There is one
“genre” in this book that we managed to avoid altogether in our talk.
And at this launch we had the most fabulous cup-cakes.
I could kick myself though for forgetting to mention at both events that
we need people to review the books. I almost forgot again here. Reviews
don’t need to be long. It makes such a difference to an author if you
can leave a review on Amazon or Good Reads. In order to be able to
review the book on Amazon you must either have bought the book from them
or have spent enough money with them otherwise. There is no restriction
on Good Reads. A presence on either gives the book more visibility.
Amazon will flag books up once they have over 50 reviews.
Writing news
I’m about one third of the way through the penultimate edit of Peace Child 6.
This is the ‘read out loud’ edit. It was quite amusing to do that on
the train on Saturday. I did have a double seat to myself and I managed
to whisper.
I have two reviews on Talking About My Generation
I review:
Dear Lupin at the Whitefield Garrick: https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/review-dear-lupin-at-the-whitefield-garrick
And Brassed Off at the Bolton Octagon https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/review-brassed-off-at-the-bolton-octagon/
On My Blog
The Young Person’s Library
I’ve added four books this month.
Looking for Lucie is a YA text, concerned with identity and autism. I’ve added Afterwards described above. Sigrid is Unique is an illustrated emergent reader book, also about autism. The Book of Chaos is an absorbing fantasy for a fluent reader.
Recommended read
This month I’ve enjoyed Harpy: a manifesto for childfree women
by Caroline Magennis. Caroline is a former colleague of mine. She has
chosen to remain childfree; this has not been imposed upon her.
It has been a delight to read this book.
Magennis manages to combine a very engaging and readable style with some
academic rigour. She recounts instances of how she enjoys her childfree
status and how that is challenged socially and in the work place.
As one would expect in a book like this, she quotes accurately from many
sources and never forgets to show her own opinion about what others
have said. She has interviewed many other childfree women and this gives
us a rich combination of many different stances.
It certainly made me think more carefully about the childfree women I know.
A very rewarding read.
Find your copy here.
Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at
no extra cost to you, may go to Bridge House Publishing.
Giveaway
This month I’m giving away Babel .
Babel is the second part of the
Peace Child trilogy. Kaleem has found his father and soon finds the love
of his life, Rozia Laurence, but he is still not comfortable with his
role as Peace Child. He also has to face some of the less palatable
truths about his home planet: it is blighted by the existence of the Z
Zone, a place where poorer people live outside of society, and by
switch-off, compulsory euthanasia for a healthy but aging population,
including his mentor, Razjosh. The Babel Tower still haunts him, but it
begins to make sense as he uncovers more of the truth about his past and
how it is connected with the problems in the Z Zone. Kaleem knows he
can and must make a difference, but at what personal cost?
Grab your copy here. You’ll find two different e-book files and a PDF plus a lot of other free materials here.
Please leave a review on Amazon, if you’re allowed to, on Good Reads and anywhere else you can.
The Schellberg Project
The posts may be helpful for teachers who
are familiar with the Schellberg stories or who are teaching about the
Holocaust. They may also be interesting for other readers of historical
fiction.
Some notes about my newsletters and blogs
They do overlap a little but here is a summary of what they all do.
Bridge House Authors For all those published
by Bridge House, CaféLit, Chapeltown or The Red Telephone or interested
in being published by us. General news about the imprints. News for
writers. Links to book performance. Sign up here.
The Bridgetown Café Bookshop where you can
buy my books and books published by Bridge House Publishing, CafeLit,
Chapeltown Books and The Red Telephone. Visit us here.
Gill’s News: News about my writing, The Schellberg Project, School Visits and Events. Book recommendations and giveaways. Find it here.
Pushing Boundaries, Flying Higher News about conferences and workshops to do with the young adult novel. (infrequent postings) Sign up here.
Red Telephone Books News about our books and our authors. Sign up here.
A Publisher’s Perspective Here I and some other editors blog as a publisher. Access this here.
The Creative Café Project Listings and reviews of creative cafés. See them here.
CaféLit Stories Find these here
Gill James Writer All about writing and about my books. View this here.
Gill’s Recommended Reads Find information here about books that have taken me out of my editor’s head and a reminder of the ones I’ve highlighted in this newsletter.
Gill’s Sample Fiction Read some of my fiction here.
The House on Schellberg Street All about my Schellberg project. Read it here.
Writing Teacher All about teaching creative writing. Some creative writing exercises. Access this here. I also invite other writers to provide prompts and work for critique.
Books Books Books Weekly offers on our books and news of new books. Find them here.
The Young Person’s Library The children’s book catalogue. Access it here.
Fair Submissions Find it here.
Opportunities
for writers are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I send
it out to a list. If you would like to be on that list, sign up here.
Happy reading and writing.
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